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I never recall stating that the VLC people care about the law. They don't. It's not only illegal (in the US anyway) to distribute it fully functional, but it violates literally dozens of US software patents. (MP3 alone still has more than you'd think would be reasonable given that it is obsolete, and that's only one codec.)

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I should also mention that libdvdcss might not be a DMCA violation since it is not cracking anything. DVD CSS was not meant as "content protection", it was intended to make sure that DVD players had to pay licensing fees to the DVD Forum and therefore also support User Backstabbing Operations.

libdvdcss doesn't crack anything, it simply shotguns the weak 40 bit cipher with random possible keys until one works, then it saves the key that worked so subsequent loading of that title is faster next time. This way they don't have to pay the DVD Forum and they don't have to have mandatory User Backstabbing Operations. (I'm sorry Dave, you MUST watch all 10 minutes of advertising on that disc. I cannot allow you to fast forward! Hey! What are you doing! Stop that! We can talk about this! OWWW!!!!)

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I never recall stating that the VLC people care about the law. They don't. It's not only illegal (in the US anyway) to distribute it fully functional, but it violates literally dozens of US software patents.)

"VideoLAN is an organization based in France." (their emphasis)
"Neither French law nor European conventions recognize software as patentable"
"VideoLAN is NOT a US-based organization and is therefore outside US juridiction." (again, their emphasis)

Given this, do you have any basis for believing that they don't care about the law?

"VideoLAN is an organization based in France." (their emphasis)
"Neither French law nor European conventions recognize software as patentable"
"VideoLAN is NOT a US-based organization and is therefore outside US juridiction." (again, their emphasis)

Given this, do you have any basis for believing that they don't care about the law?

When SOPA passes (and some form of it will), the United States will probably attack VLC through the ITA and do a wikileak's style defunding blockade by not allowing credit card, paypal, etc. donations to VLC. we'll see if this is an "American" problem then.

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When SOPA passes (and some form of it will), the United States will probably attack VLC through the ITA and do a wikileak's style defunding blockade by not allowing credit card, paypal, etc. donations to VLC. we'll see if this is an "American" problem then.

This has more to do with the US treating the whole world as their jurisdiction - thus ignoring every single legal principle since well, law exists - than VLC committing any felony.